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WASHINGTON: Army modernization will really hit the gas in 2021, officials said today, ramping up rapidly from the 2020 budget request released this week. But the service has learned from past disasters to “try before you buy” and will give itself time to test how new technology works against real-world threats, said Undersecretary Ryan McCarthy, himself a veteran of the Army’s Future Combat Systems debacle. As each of 31 top-priority technologies matures — and not before — the service will move money into it and out of … (read more)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s $9.4 billion budget request for fiscal 2020 — while slightly smaller than last year’s budget of $9.9 billion — maintains many efforts from previous years to defend the homeland and counter regional threats, but it does not reflect some of the major ambitions laid out in the recently released Missile Defense Review.

The two-year delayed Missile Defense Review, released in January, lists space-based missile defense sensors and laser-armed drones as part of a wish list for missile defense capabilities, but these new desires are not … (read more)

A team of U.S. Navy scientists and engineers received a U.S. patent on a technology that stops intellectual property theft, a major concern for electronics and defense companies who use hardware produced by subcontractors in Asia.

U.S. Patent 10,204,875, titled “Systems and Methods for Inhibiting Backend Access to Integrated Circuits by Integrating Photon and Electron Sensing Latch-up Circuits,” was issued to inventors Matt Kay, Matthew Gadlage, Adam Duncan, Brett Hamilton, Brett Werner, and Austin Roach, all of Indiana, on Tuesday, for their work at … (read more)

The Army’s fiscal year 2020 budget request will reflect its intent to reduce, eliminate or delay programs in favor of its top modernization priorities, according to the service’s top civilian leader.

In the 2020 budget blueprint — which is expected to be released mid-March — the service shifted “the dollars dramatically into the future next-generation projects defined by our cross-functional teams,” Army Secretary Mark Esper said Feb. 8 during a panel discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

These priorities fall under the Army’s new Futures Command that was first announced in October 2017. They include: long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicle, future vertical lift, the network, air-and-missile defense and … (read more)

COLOGNE, Germany, and LONDON — German tank-maker Rheinmetall plans to buy a majority stake in U.K.-based business BAE Systems, a move that could create a new industry heavyweight in the military vehicles market.

The two companies signed an agreement to create a joint business based at BAE Systems’ Telford, England, facility. If government regulators approve, Rheinmetall would hold 55 percent of the new Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land, or RBSL, with the British firm keeping 45 percent.

BAE’s armored vehicles business in the U.K. has an annual turnover of about … (read more)

The Army has kicked off the new year with upgrades in protection and firepower for its tanks, artillery and ground combat vehicles.

For the armor set, officials announced this month upgrades to an additional 174 Abrams tanks, putting them in line for the System Enhancement Package Version 3 for the M1A2 tank.

That package includes upgraded communications, reliability, sustainment, fuel efficiency and improved armor, according to General Dynamics Land Systems, the company that received the $714 million delivery order.

The communications upgrades integrate the joint tactical radio system … (read more)

Over the last couple of years, we’ve covered the rapid transformation of drone technology and the development and commercial deployment of new UAV designs. Of particular focus has been around innovations that increase TiTA (Time in The Air) and offer multi-function platforms in one vehicle, which is something Flightwave Aerospace Inc. has been working on since the company was founded. Creating aircraft that can fly farther and longer has clearly been a priority for Flightwave, but one of their latest innovations designed to overcome the inherent limitations that quadcopters … (read more)

Army Recognition is presenting the 15 most modern main battle tanks currently in production or ready for series production to date (27 November 2018), a list that excludes the light and medium tanks of the 25-35-ton class except one, the Argentinian TAM 2IP, to have a South-American tank in the list. Other light and medium tanks would deserve to appear in this list, as they became or become operational during these last years, the most recent one being the Turkish-Indonesian Kaplan-Harimau … (read more)

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